“Especially after she just spent five weeks at number one?” put in Greg.
“You’re not exactly dealing with the most reasonable people when you’re dealing with those suits over in that building,” Obie said. “They act like the fate of the whole goddamn free world rests on putting out the next tune.”
“What tunes are they suggesting we put out?” Jake asked, curious, knowing it probably would not be what he thought they should release next.
“For Celia they want Why? as they next one,” Obie said.
“That figures,” Jake said. “They want to wring the album for all it’s worth as quickly as they can.”
“And if they can score another number one hit before the end of the year, they’ll have a little something to show their stockholders when the royalties start rolling in,” said Obie. “Not a bad strategy, really.”
“I disagree,” Jake said.
“How come?” asked Pauline. “You’ve said a dozen times that Why? is probably going to be the best-charting cut on the whole album.”
“It will be,” Jake said. “All of the tunes on Struggle are good, but Why? is a masterpiece—a work of art that is still going to be played fifty years from now. The melodic guitar work and the violin melody mixed with Celia’s and Paulie’s voices in duet. Exquisite shit. The public is going to eat it up. That’s why we don’t release it for play yet. We hold it in reserve and bring it out only after some of the other tunes have charted and peaked.”
“Okay,” Obie said slowly, nodding his head a little. “I suppose I can see the logic in that.”
“What song of mine do they want to release next?” Jake asked.
“The title cut,” Obie told him. “They want it on all the hard rocks like yesterday.”
“That figures as well,” Jake said with a shake of the head. “They want me to try to pick up some of the hard rock cred I lost.”
“The hard rock cred?” asked Laura.
“Can’t Keep Me Down is the hardest rocking tune on the album,” Jake explained. “A lot of the hard rock fans that associate me with Intemperance didn’t care too much for Easy. You should read some of the letters I got. Sellout is the kindest thing I’m being accused of.”
“Easy was still rock and roll though,” Laura said. “If a different artist had put it out, they would’ve loved it. I don’t understand why they think you’re a sellout.”
“Because I switched to a more popular genre of music and because that music is being played on pop stations and enjoyed by people who did not like Intemperance. In their eyes, that makes me a sellout.” He shrugged. “Maybe I am, in a way, but I didn’t set out to deliberately make pop music. I just put down what I composed and it came out that way.”
“And National is happy with that,” Obie said. “Believe me, they aren’t complaining about Easy’s popularity or thinking it’s bad that you might be a sellout. They fuckin’ live for sellouts. That is a not a bad thing to be termed in their minds, you understand? Still, they think that if they release Down and play it exclusively on the hard rocks, you’ll get some of that credibility back with the Intemp crowd and maybe start to pick up some album sales from them.”
“If only things were that simple,” Jake said with a sigh.
“You don’t think the argument is valid?” asked Pauline.
“Down is a hard rocker, but it’s still well short of the heavy metal genre that Intemperance is associated with. The hard core rockers are not going to like it any more than they liked Easy. Down will be released eventually, and it will appeal to a good section of the hard rock demographic, but now is not the time to put it out there.”
“What tunes do you want put out next?” Obie asked.
“For me, Insignificance needs to be the next tune promoted,” Jake said.
Obie looked at him pointedly. “The mellow guitar and violin piece? The one that don’t have no electric guitar or drums in it at all?”
“That’s the one,” Jake said. “It needs to start getting saturation play on both the pops and the hard rocks.”
“The pops will eat it up,” Obie said. “I’m not so sure about the hard rocks, however.”
“I’m not so sure about them either, but we have to at least try, right? Hopefully the fact that I’m Jake Kingsley will get people to at least listen to it on the hard rocks. And, though it’s a ballad level piece, I think it has enough appeal that the rockers will like it. I honestly think that’s one of the best tunes I’ve ever composed and recorded.”
“I agree,” said Celia. “I love that song.”
“Whether or not the hard rocks keep playing it will have to be determined,” Jake said, “but I think it’s going to chart like mad on the pops—maybe not as fast and furious as Struggle did, and certainly nowhere near what Why? is eventually going to do, but it’ll be the biggest hit on my album, undoubtedly. And, once it charts—once people know there are at least two good songs on the CD, album sales will start to pick up as well.”
“Okay then,” Obie said. “It’s your show, I’m just the one who makes it happen. We release Insig next with heavy airplay on the pops and the hards.”
“Correct,” Jake said. “And I want them to mention whenever feasible that it is me playing the acoustic guitar and my mother playing the violin.”
“You want them to know your mother is playing the violin?” Obie asked, surprised.
“Damn right,” he said. “In the first place, my mom did a fantastic job on that tune. Her violin is a huge part of what makes that song what it is. I damn sure want her to get credit for it. In the second place, I think that having people know that my mother is the violinist will actually make the tune appeal to them a little more. They’ll pay more attention to it. It’ll grow on them a little faster. It will be a conversation piece when people talk about the tune with other people.”
Obie nodded thoughtfully. “An interesting theory,” he said.
“Jake, that is so sweet,” Laura said, beaming at him.
Jake shrugged. “Like I said, she deserves the recognition. She’s a wonderful musician. She didn’t get that gig just because she’s my mother, she got it because she’s badass. I want people to know that.”
“Okay,” Obie said, setting down his whiskey glass to scribble out a few notes. “That takes care of Jake’s next release. What about Miss Celia?”
“Well, it’s Celia’s album,” Jake said, “so I can only make suggestions on her behalf, but I would say that we should put Playing Those Games out next.”
“Games?” Celia asked, surprised. “The hard rock tune?”
“Exactly,” Jake said. “It’s time to establish Celia Valdez as someone who knows how to fucking rock. That tune grinds. We need to get it on the hard rocks first and then start playing it on the pops as well.”
“For what purpose?” asked Obie. “Do you really think it’s going to chart that well?”
“It’ll chart,” Jake said, “but it won’t chart as fast or as high as Struggle did or Why? is going to. That doesn’t matter though. Remember, the goal here is to sell CDs, not singles. Once people hear Games on the radio, once they realize it’s Celia Valdez throwing that shit down, they’re going to start snatching up the CD in droves, both in the hard rock and in the pop demographics.”
Obie looked over at Celia. “Sound reasonable to you, darlin’?” he asked her.
“I’ve trusted Jake this far,” Celia said. “He hasn’t steered me wrong yet. I say we go with what he suggests.”